Pope appeals to conscience of Christians involved in wars

The course is organized annually by the Apostolic Penitentiary for those who administer the sacrament of reconciliation (or confession) to the faithful.

The Pontiff reflected on the history of this sacrament, which was established and practiced from the earliest days of the Church. The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 established for the first time that the faithful “are obligated to sacramental confession at least once a year.”

One of the key effects of this sacrament is restored unity with God. “Whoever acknowledges his sins and condemns them is already in harmony with God. God condemns your sins; and if you too condemn them, you unite yourself with God,” Leo XIV said, quoting St. Augustine.

The sacrament of reconciliation, Leo XIV explained, is a “laboratory of unity.” The forgiveness of sins and the sanctifying grace it bestows upon the faithful foster the unity of the Church as well as inner unity, but also, more broadly, “peace and unity in the human family.” He then asked, “Those Christians who bear a heavy responsibility in armed conflicts, do they have the humility and courage to engage in a serious examination of conscience and to go to confession?”

Sin, the Pope went on to say, “does not break the unity” between God and man in an absolute sense, understood as the creature’s dependence in being on its Creator; “Even a sinner remains totally dependent on God the Creator, and that dependence, when recognized, can open the road to conversion.” However, sin can break the sinner’s “spiritual unity” with the Creator, he explains

This amounts to “turning one’s back” on God, he emphasized, stating that “to deny the possibility that sin truly breaks unity with God amounts, in reality, to disregarding the dignity of man, who is — and remains — free and therefore responsible for his actions.”

The “highly noble” task of confessors, Leo XIV assured the priests present, is therefore to “rebuild people’s unity with God” through confession. “A priest’s life can flourish fully if he celebrates this sacrament with diligence and fidelity,” he insisted, citing as examples numerous holy confessors such as the French Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, Saint Leopold Mandić, Padre Pio, and Blessed Michał Sopoćko.

The Pope then emphasized that the unity of the Church also depends on the unity of individuals, who are part of the mystical body of Christ that is the Church. “In the confessional, dear brothers, we contribute to the constant building up of the Church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic,” he declared. “By doing so, we also give new energy to society and to the world.”

Leo XIV further noted that the “new generations” were particularly in search of this “inner unity.” Young people are faced with the “unfulfilled promises of rampant consumerism and the frustrating experience of freedom disconnected from the truth” and a “sense of incompleteness.” The sacrament of forgiveness, an expression of divine mercy, makes it possible “to raise those existential questions to which only Christ can fully respond.”

“Only a person who is reconciled is able to live in an unarmed and disarming way!” he concludes. “Whoever puts down the weapons of pride and lets himself be continually renewed by God’s forgiveness becomes a worker of reconciliation in daily life.”